Benchmarks continue to trade firm led by gains in frontline blue chip stocks

Indian equity benchmarks continue to trade firm in early noon session led by gains in frontline blue chip stocks such as oil & gas, IT, PSU, Bankex and Auto among others. Sentiment got up beat with Finance Minister Arun Jaitley vowing corruption-free governance, reasonable tax rates and non-discretionary allotment of natural resources to make it easier for companies to do business in India. Appreciation in Indian rupee too aided the sentiment. The rupee strengthened by 10 paise to 66.07 against the dollar in early trade today at the Interbank Foreign Exchange on increased selling of the US currency by exporters and banks. The broader markets are distinctly outperforming their larger peers. BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices have both climbed up by 0.80% each. The market breadth on BSE was positive, out of 2370 stocks traded, 1426 stocks advanced, while 754 stocks declined on the BSE.
 
On the global front, Asian markets were trading mostly in green, after US markets trimmed gains to close marginally lower, as investors continue to mull a likely interest rate hike by the Federal Reserve in December. Back home, both the sensex and Nifty were trading above the crucial 26,000 and 7,850 levels, respectively. In scrip specific development, share of PTC India Financial Services (PFS) was trading higher after the company signed a pact with India Infrastructure Finance Company (IIFCL) to provide financing for infrastructure projects.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 26026.91, up by 184.99 points or 0.72% after trading in a range of 25769.81 and 26057.16. There were 24 stocks advancing against 5 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.83%, while Small cap index was up by 0.80%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Oil & Gas up by 1.88%, IT up by 1.20%, PSU up by 1.03%, Bankex up by 1.02% and Auto up by 0.96%, while FMCG down by 0.05% was the lone losing index on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were GAIL India up by 9.12%, Wipro up by 2.65%, Bajaj Auto up by 2.15%, Mahindra & Mahindra up by 2.13% and TCS up by 1.85%. On the flip side, Sun Pharma Inds. down by 1.23%, Bharti Airtel down by 0.94%, ITC down by 0.78%, Vedanta down by 0.05% and Reliance Industries down by 0.02% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, concerned about the sluggish investment impeding growth in the country, Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has said that investor friendly environment should be created to attract investment. He vowed for a corruption-free governance, reasonable tax rates and non-discretionary allotment of natural resource. He pointed that these are the basic factors which are to be looked for making it easier for companies to do business in India.

Jaitley while stating the difficulty in doing business can dis-engine investors said that it is necessary to ensure that governance becomes corruption free and discretions were reduced to the minimum. Highlighting the need for making sure that tax rates remain at a reasonable levels he said that the rates of taxation are not so onerous or the policy of taxation is not so aggressive that it deter investors away.

Besides, the minister said that it was essential to ease the systems under which, people can chose to do business and make sure that 'governance becomes completely corruption free. Furthermore he said that it the main responsibility to make sure whether all the facilities from capital to land to natural resources are quickly made available in a non-discretionary and non-arbitrary manner to investors.

Outlining the steps being taken by the government to improve the investment climate in the country and by expressing its confidence that states are competing with each other to attract investments Jaitley said that the country is becoming aspirational and said that 'the aspirational constituency of India has increased. That aspirational constituency which supports growth, reform, which in fact is now getting impatient and wants India to reform much faster, the support of that constituency for reform and growth has usually increased'.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 7897.95, up by 55.20 points or 0.70% after trading in a range of 7817.80 and 7905.70. There were 42 stocks advancing against 8 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were GAIL India up by 9.04%, Wipro up by 2.88%, Ambuja Cement up by 2.15%, Mahindra & Mahindra up by 2.05% and Dr. Reddys Lab up by 2.01%. On the flip side, Sun Pharma Inds. down by 1.25%, Bharti Airtel down by 1.05%, Idea Cellular down by 0.67%, Bosch down by 0.65% and ITC down by 0.64% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in green; KOSPI Index increased 0.5 points or 0.03% to 1,989.41, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI increased 1.76 points or 0.11% to 1,661.82, Shanghai Composite increased 17.33 points or 0.48% to 3,634.40 and Jakarta Composite increased 18.26 points or 0.4% to 4,537.20, while Nikkei 225 decreased 76.65 points or 0.39% to 19,783.16, Hang Seng decreased 37.63 points or 0.17% to 22,462.59 and Taiwan Weighted decreased 11.75 points or 0.14% to 8,465.45.